We are thrilled to advise that the migration of Travelbug to BookIt is complete. As of 3.15pm on 1st June, the BookIt system is processing all bookings on Travelbug.

Congratulations to Pinewood Lodge who was the first operator to receive a Travelbug booking through BookIt - a Travelbug t-shirt is on its way to you!

There are a few things we need you to know about how "new Travelbug" differs from "old Travelbug". While it is essentially working in exactly the same manner, thereare a few differences that come out of the extra flexibility that the BookIt system enables, so please see below for the answers to our most frequently asked questions.

Thank you for helping us meet our targeted date of 1st June. Please let us knowif there is anything we can do to help you get the best out of the BookIt system.

Kind regards,The Trade Me Travel team
support@bookit.co.nz

• As Travelbug bookings are processed by BookIt, you will receive booking emails and invoices from BookIt. These are formatted differently to the old Vianet emails but have all the information you need. Here's an example of how your booking confirmation/invoice email will appear:
  
  
  
• You can now amend Travelbug bookings within your BookIt account, with extra charges or refunds processed automatically back to the traveller's credit card.
• The minimum cancellation fee on BookIt is $10, rather than the 20% minimum that was applied on Vianet. Please make sure you set your cancellation policies in BookIt on the 'Product setup' page.

• We've added BookIt traveller feedback to Travelbug so there may be some new feedback on your Travelbug listing page.
• Rankings have changed slightly as a result of the switch. Bugrank still applies, however, and offering instant confirmation is still the best way to rank highly in search results. Give us a call if you need help to move to instant confirmation.
• Regions and districts have changed, please check where you appear and make sure you are happy with your region and district. We can't add every little district but we'll do our best to help you out.

• By default, payment for BookIt bookings are made to your nominated account automatically 7 days before arrival, with weekly payment runs on a Thursday evening. If you already have a BookIt listing and have changed your payment terms, your settings will not have changed. You can view payments due on the 'Billing' tab within BookIt.
• If you have lost your BookIt login details go to http://business.bookit.co.nz/pub/PwdRecover.aspx and enter the email address ich this email was sent
• BookIt does not currently offer a text message notification service for booking requests and confirmations.

• We won't switch Vianet off until around the end of September. Funds for forward bookings are secure and will be paid out as normal.
• Please keep updating Vianet for self-retail (if using Vianet within your own site) and other Vianet reseller websites. If you don't want to manage instant confirmation on both systems, please use Vianet for on-request and make BookIt instant confirmation.
• If you use Vianet in your website for direct bookings, you will need to switch to BookIt. The code is available for you to download within your BookIt account so please let us know if you need any help with that.

It's been a while since our last newsletter - since we joined Trade Me, in fact - and we thought it was about time to welcome you to the BookIt network, or welcome you back if you've been around for a while. We'd also like to tell you about some exciting changes to the system and update you on the integration of BookIt into Travelbug.

New BookIt features We've recently added some new features to the site: Inventory manager - allows you to view all products and their rates and inventory on one screen to more easily manage your business. You can use it to copy inventory and prices across and down, manage minimum stays and block out unavailable dates.   Cancellation policies - you can now assign different cancellation policies for different products. This is perfect for non-refundable and fully-flexi products.   Login removal - travellers no longer need to create a login to book. This makes things faster and easier for them, while you benefit from more bookings.

Moving from Vianet to BookIt We're well into the migration of Vianet to BookIt, with all Vianet accounts now mirrored on BookIt and either approved or ready to approve once rates have been loaded. If you haven't already, please log in to BookIt and load rate seasons, rates and inventory ready for when Travelbug switches to BookIt at the start of June. We will switch the Vianet system off for new bookings later this year.

BookIt tips and tricks If you are new to the BookIt system, here are a couple of things you might find useful: Booking notification emails are sent to the "master" user email address, or the reservations user email address if there is one. Please make sure you are happy with the email address loaded in your account. Amendments are a great feature of the BookIt system. Do you have a guest that wants to change their dates of stay or the number of nights? Simply view the booking and use the editing tools at the bottom of the page - refunds or extra charges are made automatically to the traveller's credit card.

Fraud and chargebacks There's no escaping the fact that there are dirty, rotten scoundrels out there who make bookings on other people's credit cards. We get a few chargebacks from people questioning the charges they find on their cards; unfortunately, it is up to you to match the person who checks in with the person who made the booking, and where possible obtain: a signed registration form a copy of their ID If you have this information, we'll be able to provide it to the bank if the charge is questioned by the card holder. If the information is not provided, the chargeback is likely to hit your account.

Moving from Vianet to BookIt While we're part of Trade Me, we're our own little team and we're here to bring you online exposure and bookings. If you have any questions at all, make sure you contact us on 0508 BOOKIT or email support@bookit.co.nz. Thanks for reading this newsletter, we'll be in touch again soon. Regards, The Trade Me Travel team

BookIt has launched in Australia with top Holiday Rental Accommodation website Stayz.com.au. Holiday seekers are now able to pay directly online through Stayz, and property owners can use the system to simplify the management of their booking payments. 

This new system ensures Stayz meets consumer demand for online transactions and will boost consumer confidence in holiday rental bookings.  
Benefits for property owners include quick and easy collection of funds, the ability to manage their own amendments, cancellations and refunds at the touch of a button, and prominence of the online payment facility.

Kirsty Shaw, General Manager for Stayz, explains.

"We researched a range of different technology options for providing online booking and payments on our website. When selecting BookIt we were confident that we had found not only the right software, but the right team and expertise to deliver the solution."

The site upgrade launched prior to Christmas with immediate success.

"It's great to see guests and property owners embracing the new system to transact." explains Jon Harrison, Product Manager for Stayz.

The team at BookIt are looking forward to other opportunities in the Australian travel space.

"This foothold is a great chance for us to assess the market in Australia." explains director Ryan Baker. "BookIt is working really well for our New Zealand clients, so it is a logical next step to look to offer the service in Australia."

Plans for the next phase of the Stayz project are underway with further releases due to go live in the first quarter of 2010.

About Stayz:

• The number 1 website in Australia for online holiday rentals, with over 20,000 property listings from over 1,400 locations throughout Australia
• Ranked 3rd in Australia for online accommodation
• Visited by over 590,000* unique browsers each month and has over 200,000 subscribers to its fortnightly e-newsletter  (*Source: Neilsen//Netratings, Market Intelligence, total audience average 2009)
• Offers Australian home owners an opportunity to list their rental property online and make the most of their investment.

We are thrilled to announce that BookIt has been ranked on the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific - one of the region's most comprehensive and respected rankings of fast-growing technology companies.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program is now in its eighth year. The program recognizes technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of annual revenue growth in Asia Pacific during the past three years. It includes companies based in Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The awards luncheon was held at the prestigious Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong on Thursday, 10 December 2009, and was attended by hundreds of CxO’s and senior management from winning companies across Asia Pacific. Immediately following the awards luncheon was the regional media conference, which was attended by key regional and press/media.

“Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific ranking is a testament to a company’s commitment to technology,” Ian Thatcher, partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific program. “With its 150% growth rate over three years, BookIt has proven that its leadership has the vision and determination to grow in difficult conditions.”

BookIt ranks 293rd on the index with growth of 150% percent during this period. It is excellent to also see 51 New Zealand businesses making the index this year, compared to 31 in 2008 and 38 in 2007. Go Kiwi!

To read more, visit the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific website.

BookIt’s accommodation suppliers can now find themselves squarely on the map with the recently re-launched Yellow™ Maps website.

Under a deal announced in May, BookIt provides live feeds of room rates and availability within a new dedicated accommodation search feature on Yellow™ Maps. Visitors to the website are able to search, locate, compare and book from a range of available options.

“The partnership with BookIt is a great fit for us”, explains Campbell Brown, Senior Product Manager for Yellow’s Digital Media team. “Yellow Maps is a key component of our digital strategy and providing accommodation search is a natural progression for this site.  Along with the fundamentals like maps, driving directions, and business listings we needed the best possible solution for accommodation search.  With the BookIt solution we are able to directly access the data that we need and present this on a map specific to the user’s requirements. 

“BookIt’s software also gives us a full, out of the box, online booking engine that we can plug directly into the Yellow Maps website. “

In collaboration with Auckland-based Marker studio, Yellow have now launched an improved version of the Yellow Maps website.

“The move to the new design is a direct response to client feedback.” explains Mr Brown. “Visitors wanted more map space, less clutter and the ability to simply display the map on its own.  This also means that we have far greater space for displaying our key content from partners such as BookIt’s ever expanding accommodation inventory, which is fast becoming a prominent feature on Yellow Maps™. “

“We are also looking at plans to expand the booking technology developed with BookIt into other Yellow™ sites in the not too distant future.”

New Zealand accommodation operators seeking a free listing on the Yellow Maps™ website can register online at www.bookit.co.nz.

The main objective of the E Tourism Conference is to create awareness, educate and update the travel industry with the latest e-travel strategies. This will enable tourism providers to achieve maximum return on their advertising investment and teach them how to do this effectively in the minimum time necessary.

Andrew and I are really looking forward to meeting delegates and fellow exhibitors at the conference. It will be a great chance to catch up and we'll have demos of the booking engine available from our booth. If you are attending the conference and would like to arrange an appointment please contact ryan@bookit.co.nz. Otherwise feel free to play it by ear and come and see us any time that works for you.

For more information on the conference, or to book conference accommodation (powered by BookIt of course!), visit www.etourismnz.com.

In this Newsletter:

• Yellow™ Maps relaunches with BookIt powered search
• e-Tourism Conference October 1-2, Wellington
• Update on real-time booking options - EZYield now live
• Some statistics from the BookIt online booking marketplace
• Help us grow NZ's favourite online booking network

Read the full Newsletter here...

bookings.bookitsecure.com

Notice for all BookIt clients (not including suppliers):

On the morning of the 20th August we will be changing the live URL of the BookIt booking process from http://bookings.nzbookit.com to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com

The main reasons for this change are that we are phasing out the nzbookit.com domain name and internationalising the booking process for our overseas clients.

What you need to know:

• Any links on your website that point to the current BookIt URL will continue to work and you don't need to change anything here (these links will redirect to the bookitsecure.com domain name)
• However, any future booking links we supply you will be on the bookitsecure.com URL
• If you use any analytics tracking code you may need to update this with the new URL. For example, if you use Google Analytics tracking code and have created "goals" that refer to the nzbookit.com domain name, these will need to be updated to the bookitsecure.com domain name. Below are the pages commonly used for this purpose
• Once the changeover is complete we advise you to check your tracking code in the days following the rollover to ensure everything is working as expected

Main booking pages affected:

Configuration page:
http://bookings.nzbookit.com/pub/config.aspx changed to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com/pub/config.aspx

Quote page:
http://bookings.nzbookit.com/pub/quote.aspx changed to http://bookings.bookitsecure.com/pub/quote.aspx

Payment page:
https://bookings.nzbookit.com/sec/itin.aspx changed to https://bookings.bookitsecure.com/sec/itin.aspx

Confirmation page:
https://bookings.nzbookit.com/sec/status.aspx changed to https://bookings.bookitsecure.com/sec/status.aspx

To update "goals" in Google Analytics, log into your account then choose "Analytics Settings" in the nav bar. Then click "edit" next to the goal you want to amend and update the Goal URL and steps with the new URL's above.

UPDATE:
The new URL is now live

We all know that real-time confirmation of bookings is a "must have" feature for both customers and operators. But did you know that BookIt can provide a real-time link to the leading channel managers and Property Management Systems in New Zealand?

A real-time link via a channel manager is a great way of giving customers an instant confirmation, saves you time and prevents double booking situations.

We've been working hard to connect BookIt to as many channel managers as possible and we are pleased to say that we now work with the following:

We are also building links to the systems below and will make an announcement as soon as these are ready:

• ChannelDirect
• Availability
• SmartFX 

 

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSITION ARE NOW CLOSED

We are seeking an experienced, junior to intermediate .Net developer to join our Dunedin team. This is an excellent opportunity to work as part of one of New Zealand's most innovative IT companies in an exciting and fast growing Software as a Service (SaaS) application team.
 
This is a challenging role and you will need to be well organised and have a strong sense of initiative. You will be able to demonstrate the following abilities:
 
• ASP.Net, C#, .Net Web Services & SQL Server databases
• A well rounded knowledge of general web technologies such as HTML, CSS & XML
• Object oriented programming and multi-tier application development
• Excellent communication, both verbal and written
• Time management skills and an ability to work to deadlines and work unsupervised
 
Experience in the following areas is also an advantage:
 
• SQL Reporting Services
• Knowledge of the travel and tourism industry
• Production e-commerce and financial systems
• Requirements engineering and experience with the full SDLC
 
This is a perfect role for a first-rate software engineer who is looking for a chance to grow to the top of their field. You will be working in a development capacity and contributing to the development of high profile, high volume e-commerce systems for a range of clients including some of New Zealand's largest organisations.

If you know you've got what it takes, send your CV and covering letter to ryan@bookit.co.nz.
 
You must be eligible to work in NZ to apply for this role.